We will be heard.

Hear the voices that fight back against exploitation.

You don’t have to take a person’s passport to enslave her. It is not necessary to lure them from China and hide them in massage parlors they can’t leave. It is possible to trap them in plain sight, where most of us don’t see their plight or powerlessness.

Patriots owner Robert Kraft was recently charged with allegedly buying sex. But we know that the real story here is not about one man. The real story is all of you who think it is acceptable to buy someone. Here is what we want you, the buyers, to know.

The heart-wrenching details emerging about the lives of exploited women may have shocked members of Patriots Nation, but, sadly, were not shocking to us at My Life My Choice who deal with the realities of commercial sexual exploitation every day.

While the partial government shutdown has ended, it’s effects may be long-lasting for the most vulnerable in our communities. The safety net so many relied upon was stripped away creating a feeling of desperation and re-traumatization of going without.

By the age of 16, Cyntoia Brown had experienced multiple rapes, physical and mental abuse, run away from home, and was being sold for sex. On August 6, 2004, her life would change forever when she was sold to a 43-year-old perpetrator named Johnny Allen.

The recent documentary, “Survivor R. Kelly”, tells the stories of the women and children who were abused and psychologically imprisoned by R. Kelly. He used his fame to approach them in schools and malls and make them feel special and cared for.

At My Life My Choice, we are thankful to be able to support our youth through every up and down life throws their way. We are sustained by celebrating each and every small, yet so significant, glimpse of hope and positive change in our mentees’ lives.

On Thursday, September 27, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford told her truth in public for the very first time in Washington, D.C. For many of us, we felt the pain of knowing that she had held on to this truth for so long and that in the end, she might not be believed.

In the fall, girls in our My Life My Choice Leadership Corps were asked to work on a campaign and create a poster as part of the Department of Children and Families (DCF) new Missing or Absent Children in Department Care or Custody policy.

After many years of serving exclusively girls, My Life My Choice recognized a need to begin serving boys and trans youth, ages 12 to 18. The expertise we gained working with commercially sexually exploited girls applies to this underserved population as well.

As I write this blog post, two of our girls, Mara and Nisa, are missing. Both fifteen, they were referred to us when they were found to have been sold on Backpage.com. Grown men had bought them like commodities —for pleasure, for the rush, to do harm.

Earlier this year, Congress passed an important piece of legislation called the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act which will help hold offenders accountable, provide funding for prevention and education, and establish a Domestic Trafficking Victims’ Fund.

I frequently find myself wondering, how is it possible that people are so misinformed about the realities of domestic sex trafficking in the United States? The answer lies in the media representation of this issue.

A straight-A student from a “good home”, there was no way I should have been exploited. My stepdad and I got into a fight and he threw me out of the house. Throwing me out of the house was like throwing me to a pack of wolves.

This is an incredibly exciting time at My Life My Choice and in the movement to end the commercial sexual exploitation of children. My Life My Choice and the often unspoken epidemic of sex trafficking are featured in a new documentary airing on PBS next week.